This little handbook is offered to housekeepers, in order that they may readily understand the popular dietetic formulas so universally recommended by physicians, many of whom neglect the details of preparing the nutriment they prescribe, owing probably to the fact that all physicians are not cooks, as many of them were in olden, and all of them should be in modern, times.

An exhaustive work on the subject of dietetics would naturally embrace many things, which, while excellent in certain diseases, would lead to distressing results in others. Care should therefore be exercised not to administer other than the most simple diet until the nature of a disease is known, and even then the habits of the invalid should be taken into consideration.

A nurse must always keep in view the fact that the great desideratum is to administer the most nutritious food in such form that the patient can most easily assimilate it.

One word in regard to patent medicines. The sick-room is not the place for experiments, and we trust the time is not far distant when all so-called remedies and alleged health foods and drinks shall not be permitted to be sold or offered for sale, until they receive the indorsement of responsible boards of health.

The lives that are sacrificed yearly by the administration of soothing (?) syrups and other pernicious nostrums are something terrible to contemplate, and the most stringent laws should be in force regulating their sale ; in no case should they be sold without a physician's prescription.

Nurses have been known to purchase these poisonous compounds, and clandestinely administer them to children in their charge, thereby dwarfing their intellects, and, in some instances, actually destroying the lives of the children.